Banner Raising

After years of banner-raising for regular-season success, the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals aren’t the butt of peoples’ jokes anymore.

Tuesday evening, the Predators held a very elaborate ceremony before their first home game of the season. The team raised three banners even though they were knocked out of the playoffs in the second round. Ah, I know this feeling well. The team is now being ridiculed on Twitter.

CAPITAL ONE ARENA — As he watched the Stanley Cup banner begin its ascent to the rafters of Capital One Arena on Wednesday, longtime Capitals fan Bryan Gomes felt tears well in his eyes.

“I cried,” Gomes said. “Should I admit that? To be a fan all your life, and to see all the heartbreak, and to finally break through, and then it’s like — I’m still pinching myself. Did this really happen? Is this real life?”

CAPITAL ONE ARENA — Cheers echoed through Capital One Arena during the Capitals’ season opener Wednesday, but none of them topped the roar that began when Alex Ovechkin skated the Stanley Cup onto the ice for the pregame ceremony to raise the team’s first-ever championship banner.

“All the fans see the Stanley Cup on the ice, it’s a historic moment for us,” Ovechkin said after the game, a 7-0 win against the Boston Bruins. “I think tonight we have so many emotions, so much fun out there.”